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Lake Toba in Sumatra, Indonesia, is the site of a supervolcanic eruption that occurred 73,000 (±4000 years) years ago.[1][2][3][4] It was a climate-changing event. The eruption was two orders of magnitude (= x100) larger than the largest known historic eruption, that of Tambora, also in Indonesia.[2]

According to the Toba catastrophe theory,it had global consequences, killing most humans then alive and creating a population bottleneck in Central Eastern Africa and India that affected the genetic inheritance of all humans today.[6][7]

There is no direct evidence that the theory is correct. And there is no evidence for any other animal decline or extinction, even in environmentally sensitive species.[8] There is evidence that human habitation continued in India after the eruption.[9] The theory in its strongest form seems to be incorrect.